It’s a sad reflection that these days the song recital
tends to consist of the usual composers, mainly German and French.
The vast repertoire of English song - from Gurney, Warlock and
Ireland to the present day - seems only to given in specialist
recitals devoted to such music. The singers seem often to have
learned the music purely for that recital and seldom, if ever,
perform the music again. With that in mind one wonders why composers
bother to write songs. Were he alive today, Britten would still
be composing his cycles and receiving myriad performances. The
same would be true of a vocal work by Tippett, but what about
songs and song-cycles by Richard Arnell, Adrian Cruft, Kenneth
Leighton, Edmund Rubbra and so many more? And if the songs of
these composers don’t receive performances, what is the
point of writing songs at all? The answer is obvious: the English
language has some of the best lyrical poetry in the world. Composers
feel that they can illuminate the words with their music. So
hurrah for that fact and boo to the singers who ignore this
rich and endlessly fascinating repertoire.

And now we come to this disk, and its very varied content. The
first four items will be new to many and they are most welcome
in my collection. Lennox Berkeley’s Tombeaux is
a setting of four poems by Jean Cocteau, in French, and they
have more than a whiff of Poulenc to them. I imagine that these
days we tend to think of Berkeley as a very English figure but
his heritage was partly French and he studied with Nadia Boulanger.
His outlook was more cosmopolitan than many English composers
of his generation and his work displays a fastidiousness which
could only have been achieved through his Gallic connections.
These songs, though short, explore quite a deep emotional range,
in the music, I have no idea what the words are about for the
booklet doesn’t provide translations of the texts set.
Roger Quilter’s early four settings of German texts show
all the hallmarks of his compositions - clear writing, a great
respect for the text he was setting and a grateful piano part.
Whilst they may not have the assuredness of the soon to be written
First Set of Shakespeare Songs, op.6 they make an interesting
and enjoyable group. Again, there are no translations for the
German texts in the booklet.

After writing about the beauty and wealth of great English literature
available for song setting we have had two by French and German
poets. The third composer represented here ignores those great
writers and sets his own verse. There is a good reason for this,
for the composer knows exactly what music he wishes to write
and he can get the best words possible for setting by writing
them himself. As poetry the verses set here leave a lot to be
desired but as a look at the mores of travel and those that
do it, for whatever reason, they work well. However, although
I am sure that Swayne wishes to make certain points in his work,
was it really necessary to mention consumer rape, deep vein
thrombosis or a boozy old tar? It’s little things like
these which make one wonder at the tenacity of the writer. Also,
some words simply don’t set well to music. The music,
however, is very fine indeed.

The Quatre Chansons Françaises was the 14 year
old Britten’s first song-cycle and, as if he knew how
his career was going to progress, it’s an orchestral cycle.
It wasn’t performed until 1980 when Heather Harper sang
it in a radio concert, three months before the public premiere,
and her performance was issued on a BBC Carlton Classics disk
(15656 9158 - coupled with a live 1978 performance of Les
Illuminations, with Groves, and a splendid 1986 performance
of Our Hunting Fathers with Downes) which is now out
of print but is worth the search. It is so obviously an orchestral
work that it sounds somewhat thin in this version with piano
and no amount of good work can convince me of the validity of
performing the piece with piano.

Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel only came together
as the cycle we know after the composer’s death. In the
early years of the century two volumes of songs were published
but the final epilogue, which makes sense both musically
and from a story-telling point of view, was discovered in the
composer’s papers. Only then could the cycle be published
as we now know it. It’s a work I used to perform often,
in my performing days, and I have a special affinity for the
piece. I am rather worried by this performance for the music
needs a darker timbre than the tenor voice can offer. No matter
how well Benjamin Hulett performs these songs I cannot warm
to them for he doesn’t seem to be suffering. This isn’t
Winterreise where the high voice is essential for the
feel of desperation, loneliness and loss, but a more earthy
composition. The deeper voice anchors it firmly in the English
countryside, well away from the Austrian winter and imminent
death. Hulett tries his best, but there are many other, and
more apt, songs which could have filled up this disk.

Hulett is a strong singer, with a vibrant personality, good
breath control, excellent diction and the ability to tell a
story and engage us in the telling. He is fine in the first
four works for these are separate songs brought together as
cycles or groups without a real story thread - although one
could say that the Swayne has one. In the Vaughan Williams I
feel he doesn’t display a sufficiently full-bodied character
to carry the argument over 25 minutes. He tends to sing everything
in the same way and many times the chances for a little felicitous
vocal inflection or colouring are missed. I give one example.
At 00:44 in The Infinite Shining Heavens (no.6) at the
words I saw them distant as heaven and at 1:42, Night
after night in my sorrow, there is a total lack of mystery
and wonder, which makes the song quite bland instead of the
vision of a better future Vaughan Williams and Stevenson obviously
had in mind.

I cannot imagine that anyone would buy this disk for the Vaughan
Williams for the other works on the disk are much more interesting,
and almost totally unknown. Alexander Soddy gives inspired support
and the recording is clear and bright. The booklet contains
brief notes and full texts, but, as already noted, no translations.

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